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Cars: Titles, Loans, and Trades Between Spouses

Reviewed by the Amicably document team · Updated September 9, 2026

If you and your spouse agree on who keeps each car, you write it into your settlement agreement and that resolves it between the two of you. It does not, by itself, put the title in the keeping spouse's name or take the other spouse's name off a loan. Those are two separate systems: Florida's tax collector handles the title, and the lender handles the loan, and neither one reads your divorce paperwork automatically.

This guide covers how Florida treats cars as marital or separate property, how to actually move the title after your divorce is final, why the loan doesn't follow the title, Florida's sales-tax exemption for a divorce-decree transfer, and what to do if you sell or trade a car while the case is still open.

Is a car marital property in Florida?

Usually, yes, if it was bought or financed during the marriage, regardless of whose name is on the title. Florida is an equitable distribution state, not a community property state, so a car bought during the marriage doesn't automatically belong to whoever's name happens to be on it; it's part of the marital estate to be divided fairly. A car either spouse owned free and clear before the marriage, and never retitled into both names, usually stays that spouse's separate property.

When you and your spouse agree, none of that framework matters much in practice: you decide together who keeps which vehicle and write it into your settlement agreement, the same document that handles the rest of your property and debt.

Title vs. loan: two different questions

People often assume the title and the loan move together. They don't.

That means a car with a loan can need two separate follow-up steps after your divorce is final: retitling the vehicle at the tax collector, and dealing with the lender so the loan reflects who's actually keeping the car.

Transferring the title after your divorce

The decree or settlement agreement doesn't retitle the car by itself. You still have to apply for a new title, the same as any other ownership change, just with your divorce paperwork standing in for a signed-over title from your spouse.

1. Get your signed, notarized settlement agreement (or final judgment) to identify the vehicle clearly, by year, make, model, and VIN, and state plainly who it goes to.
2. Take that paperwork to your county tax collector's office; Florida vehicle titles are handled there, not at the courthouse.
3. Apply for a new certificate of title in the keeping spouse's name alone, using the state title application, with the settlement agreement or decree as the transfer document in place of the other spouse's signature.
4. Ask about the sales-tax exemption for a divorce-decree transfer before you pay, so you aren't charged as though the car were sold.
5. If a lender holds a lien on the car, contact them before or alongside the title work; the tax collector generally can't issue a lien-free title until the lien is satisfied or the lender releases it.

Every county tax collector runs this a little differently, especially for the paperwork categorized as a "court order" transfer, so it's worth a quick call to your county's office before you go in, particularly if your spouse isn't available to sign anything in person.

A realistic timeline, once your divorce is final and you have the signed settlement agreement in hand:

1. Day 0Your final judgment is entered and your settlement agreement, naming who keeps each car, becomes part of the record.
2. Week 1Call your county tax collector's office to confirm what a court-order title transfer requires locally, and call the lender if a loan is involved.
3. Week 1-2Apply for the new certificate of title in person or by mail, with the settlement agreement or decree as your supporting document.
4. Week 2-4The lender processes any refinance or assumption, if a loan needs to move into one name alone.
5. Once approvedThe new title, and the loan if applicable, are both fully in the keeping spouse's name.

The lien: why the loan doesn't follow the title

An auto loan taken out during the marriage is usually marital debt, the same as a credit card balance, but the loan itself doesn't automatically follow whoever keeps the car. If both spouses signed for the loan, both are still on the hook to the lender no matter what the settlement agreement says about who's responsible going forward.

The only ways to actually separate a joint auto loan are for the keeping spouse to refinance it solely in their own name, for the lender to approve a formal assumption, or for the loan to be paid off outright, often from the proceeds if the car is sold instead of kept. Until one of those happens, a missed payment by the spouse who kept the car can still show up on the other spouse's credit and can still be collected from either signer.

Sales tax on a divorce-decree transfer

Florida generally taxes a vehicle title transfer as though it were a sale. County tax collectors treat a transfer made under a divorce decree, alongside gifts, inheritances, and transfers between immediate family, as exempt from that sales tax, as long as no money changes hands for the vehicle itself. To claim it, you generally need to submit the divorce decree or settlement agreement with your title application and declare the exemption on the form itself; ask your county tax collector's office exactly what they want to see.

Title and registration fees still apply even when the sales tax is waived, and those amounts vary by county.

Selling or trading a car during your divorce

If you and your spouse decide to sell a car or trade it in before the divorce is final, rather than one of you keeping it, document the sale price (or trade-in value) and, if there's a loan, the exact payoff amount, so the settlement agreement reflects what actually happened rather than an estimate. A car that's sold for more than its loan balance leaves equity to divide; one sold for less leaves a shortfall that has to be accounted for the same way any other debt would be.

Trading a marital car in on a new purchase mid-divorce can also complicate things if the new vehicle is titled or financed in only one spouse's name; if that happens, put in writing whether the new car and any new loan are meant to be that spouse's alone or part of the marital estate being divided.

Putting cars in your settlement agreement

A car assignment only becomes a finished, enforceable decision once it's written into the marital settlement agreement filed with the court, identified specifically enough that there's no question which vehicle it is. Which form that is depends on your route:

Any car loan should also match what's listed on both spouses' financial affidavits (Form 12.902(b) or 12.902(c)); a loan that shows up in the agreement but not the affidavit, or the other way around, reads as a disclosure problem even when it's just an oversight.

Mistakes that leave a name stuck on someone else's car

Assuming the decree retitles the car automatically. It doesn't. You still have to apply for a new title at the tax collector's office; the decree or agreement is the supporting document, not a substitute for the application.

Leaving both names on the loan "for now." Until the loan is refinanced, assumed, or paid off, both signers remain liable to the lender no matter what the agreement says about who's responsible.

Skipping the sales-tax exemption paperwork. Without the divorce decree or settlement agreement in hand at the tax collector's office, a transfer that should be exempt can get taxed as a sale.

Letting insurance lapse on a car that's changing hands. Coverage and registration should stay current for whoever is actually driving the car while the paperwork catches up, not just the person whose name was on it before.

Amicably prepares the complete Florida packet, the settlement agreement that identifies each vehicle included, for a flat $99. The county's filing fee is separate, roughly $408 in the counties we serve, paid to the clerk when you file.

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